When you’re nine-years-old, there’s no way to know what your life — or your legacy — will look like. Today, Bubba Wallace, isn’t ready to define his own just yet. “Ask me when I’m old,” he laughed. But if his words hesitate, his actions don’t. From Mobile, Alabama, to NASCAR’s biggest stage, the throughline has been simple: community, respect and a willingness to show up.
As a kid, Wallace was just one of many faces at the Boys and Girls Club after-school program. Hanging with friends, burning off the day, never realizing the lessons and structure around him would stick.
“You just remember going there with your friends, creating those relationships… you didn’t even realize the time,” he recalled. “Looking back, you can see those mentorships, those people guiding you along the way for moments like this.”
Moments like this include his recent partnership with Carter’s, which launched a limited-edition t-shirt line designed by Boys & Girls Club kids. More than 600 submissions poured in, but three young artists were chosen to have their creations produced and sold nationwide, with $5 from each shirt supporting BGCA.
At the flagship Carter’s store in Atlanta, the BGCA alum welcomed local Club kids to a VIP back-to-school pep rally. Each child marched confidently through a spirit tunnel. Their arms raised, giving out high-fives as they entered the store. Wallace grinned watching them, “It’s cool to see kids trusting themselves, believing in themselves, and putting their imagination out there.”
Fast-forward to today, Wallace is a playoff-bound driver in NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup, and a man trying to balance the fire of competition with the gravity of being a new dad. “Your kid becomes the most important thing,” he said. “Racing was always the most important, even over marriage sometimes, but with a kid, it’s totally different. I struggled with that at first. I wasn’t even there for his birth, and I regret that.”
He jokes that his son, Becks, almost a year old, showed up at the exact wrong time. “My kid’s a piece of work. He has seven days to show up. There’s one day I don’t need him to — Sunday — and what does he do? Right at race time,” he laughed.
Today, Wallace rarely misses a moment with Becks, playfully stating that fatherhood is the “best excuse” when life pulls him in too many directions, but behind the humor is a sharper truth: “You take a step back from racing, things get better. You stop treating it so serious… you’re able to enjoy the little things more. The last 10 months have just been a lot of fun,” he said.
This recalibration of life is showing up on the track. His Brickyard 400 win snapped a 100-race drought and sealed a playoff spot, lifting a weight off his shoulders. “We don’t have any extra pressure. We can go out and run our own race. It’s nice having that freedom,” he said of his team’s playoff run.
And in case you thought Wallace was all intensity, there’s a softer, playful side too. As he lights up talking about back-to-school season, confessing for him it was all about the “drip.” He shared that he was as obsessed with binders and book bags as anyone else — and yes, he admitted he had a crush on his second-grade teacher. And if we’re being honest, most of us did.
Still, Wallace’s compass points toward something larger than wins or nostalgia.
To get respect, you have to give respect. That’s what I want connected to the Wallace name,
With a playoff spot secured and a final tune-up at Daytona on August 23, Wallace will begin his Chase for the Cup at Darlington’s Southern 500 on August 31, before the season culminates in Phoenix on November 2. He isn’t closing a chapter. He’s writing one. For himself. For his son. And for every kid who might see him and believe their own path is possible.
Because even if he isn’t ready to define his legacy, Wallace knows respect isn’t handed down. It’s earned, lap by lap, and given back in equal measure.